Carl Milton Levin (June 28, 1934 – July 29, 2021) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015.

[1] On March 9, 2015, Levin announced he was joining the Detroit-based law firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP.

[2] At the same time, he founded the Levin Center at Wayne State University Law School, dedicated to "strengthening the integrity, transparency, and accountability of public and private institutions by promoting and supporting bipartisan, fact-based oversight; advancing good governance, particularly with respect to the legislative process; and promoting civil discourse on current issues of public policy".

[15] He served as a special assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan and chief appellate defender for the city of Detroit from 1968 to 1969.

[32] He has also pushed for less secrecy in government, working to declassify many documents, particularly where false and misleading claims of ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda are concerned.

[34] Levin supported the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, ensuring that all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons from post-Soviet states, are secured and dismantled.

[40][41] In an op-ed in The Hill, Levin said that, "This treaty is a strong statement that the United States is committed to reducing the dangers to the world that nuclear weapons present.

[16] Levin led Senate investigations into the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Abu Ghraib.

[16] Under Levin's leadership, the Senate Armed Services Committee conducted oversight hearings ranging from counterfeit parts in the DOD procurement system to the use of private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[46] Levin grew critical of the Bush administration's handling of the Afghanistan War, saying in 2005 that they "took their eye off the ball when we decided to go after Iraq instead of al-Qaeda, the people who had attacked us on 9/11, and their leader.

[47] In 2008, Levin became concerned that the United States and the international community lacked a strategy for success in Afghanistan, and that NATO failed to supply troops and equipment needed in emergency situations.

[48][49] Levin was opposed to the 2009 Afghanistan troop surge (adding 30,000 U.S. combat troops), stressing the advancement of training and expanding the Afghan National Army;[50] saying that the ANA should increase to 240,000 by 2012, from the original goal of 134,000, and the number of active members of the Afghan National Police should expand to 160,000, from the initial goal of 96,000.

He questioned top Obama administration officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates during a senate hearing on the Afghanistan surge, saying that, "Where I have questions is whether the rapid deployment of a large number of U.S. combat forces, without an adequate number of Afghan security forces for our troops to partner with, serves that mission.

"[1][56] Levin was an early opponent of using U.S. military force in Iraq, saying in August 2002 that "if Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, he wouldn't use them," and that "he's a survivalist, not a suicide bomber".

"[59] Levin was one of 23 Senators who voted against the Iraq Resolution,[60] saying that "If we are going to take on Saddam at some point, it is critical that we have the world with us, that there be a U.N. resolve that authorizes war, because the consequences are very, very severe.

[63] He singled out Levin and Hillary Clinton, saying the Democratic senators were acting as if Iraq was "their property" and that they should "come to their senses" and "respect democracy".

[69] After continued criticism over the Iraq War troop surge, in August 2007, Levin and senator John Warner (R-VA), visited military bases in Mosul and Baghdad, saying that the surge brought "credible and positive results,"[70] though it failed to bring the political reconciliation needed and urged the Iraqi Parliament to hold a "no-confidence vote" on the government of Prime Minister al-Maliki.

[71] In October 2011, Levin said that President Barack Obama made the "right decision" in withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq at the end of 2011, and not continuing a U.S. military presence.

'[74] " As part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (the main annual bill used to fund the US military) Levin and Senator John McCain (ranking Republican on Armed Services Committee-AZ) included provisions that affirmed the authority of the United States military to detain captured individuals, including terrorists, in accordance with the law of war and required such detention for members of al Qaeda and others who planned or carried out the attacks against the United States.

Levin quoted the Supreme Court's 2004 decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld in support of his language authorizing indefinite detention.

[81] He teamed with Senator John McCain to write the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act, which virtually eliminated cost overruns on major defense purchases for a period of several years after its enactment.

Levin's highlights here included exposing Enron's use of accounting deceptions, financial gimmicks, and executive pay schemes leading to its collapse into bankruptcy; unfair credit card practices that loaded up average U.S. families with debt; JPMorgan Chase's $6 billion loss from hidden, reckless derivative trades by the so-called London Whale;[91] and risky investments by the United States' largest banks to profit from physical commodities like oil, natural gas, aluminum, and electricity at the expense of American businesses and families.

[99] On January 22, 2013, Levin introduced the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Conservation and Recreation Act (S. 23; 113th Congress) into the Senate.

[102][103] In 2011, the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority (DWCPA), in conjunction with the City of Detroit and MDOT, and through the leadership of Senator Carl M. Levin, opened a 21,000-square-foot public dock and terminal on the riverfront.

Levin was the author of the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 which prohibited gifts of honoraria to Members of Congress and significantly limited the use of expensive junkets.

[112] Senator Levin supported a Patients' Bill of Rights to reduce the ability of managed care organizations to affect medical decisions.

[117] Levin was a critic of the New Hampshire presidential primary's first-in-the-nation status, saying a more diverse state, such as his own Michigan, should hold its contest first.

[125] An avid supporter of the non-profit civil rights organization Focus: HOPE, Levin was instrumental in the procurement of equipment and funding for their Machinist Training Institute (MTI).

In 2002, Levin garnered 61% of the vote against Republican Andrew "Rocky" Raczkowski despite the then-high popularity of President George W. Bush and the GOP and a close gubernatorial race that year.

Sander's son Andy Levin was a policy analyst for the AFL–CIO, and was elected in 2018 to the United States House of Representatives, succeeding his retiring father.